Gina Montalto, the father of a tragic Valentine’s Day shooting in Parkland, Florida, is not going to die

Gina Montalto’s parents simply clutched hands and cried as it was announced Thursday that a Florida jury recommended the Parkland school shooter should not be condemned to death.

Tony Montalto, Gina’s father and president of the advocacy group Stand with Parkland, called it “yet another gut punch for so many of us who devastatingly lost our loved ones on that tragic Valentine’s Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.”

“Seventeen beautiful lives were cut short, by murder, and the monster that killed them gets to live to see another day,” Montalto said in a statement, echoing the sentiments of other stunned family members who bowed or shook their heads in disbelief at the decision.

The sentence will not deter us from our mission of trying to prevent school shooting tragedies from shattering other American families.

The jury recommendation of life imprisonment without parole is expected to be given to the person on November 1; Judge Elizabeth Scherer will not be able to commute the sentence.

The jury found that the state prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to justify a life sentence for the shooter, despite the fact that he was sentenced to life in prison.

“There was one with a hard ‘No.’ She couldn’t do it, and there was another two that ended up voting the same way,” Thomas said, adding that the first juror “didn’t believe because he was mentally ill he should get the death penalty.”

Montalto told reporters that nobody pays attention to the facts of the case, that nobody can remember who the victim is and what they look like. I can see my daughter in my dreams. And I miss her very much.”

Debra Hixon, widow of 49-year-old Chris Hixon, said the decision signals that the shooter’s life “meant more than the 17 that were murdered … and the thousands of people in that school and that community that are terrorized and traumatized every single day.”

“How do you say, ‘Yes it’s cruel, that it was heinous, that it was planned and we all agree on that, but oh, he might have had a mental illness or he had trouble growing up,’” she said.

Fred Guttenberg, the father of 14-year-old victim Jaime Guttenberg, lamented that the jury decision “only makes it more likely that the next mass shooting will be attempted.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/us/parkland-nicholas-cruz-sentence-reaction/index.html

The Cause of the Mass Shooting and the Destruction of a Child in Piketon, Ohio (Aug. 6, 2012), President George Wagner IV

Mental health professionals will be available at schools to assist students and staff affected by the decision.

The sentencing recommendation is something that the State Attorney hopes will bring some measure of finality and justice to the situation.

“To my knowledge this is the first time the full story of the community’s loss and all the relevant facts have been told about a mass shooting of this magnitude,” he said. We’ve not shied away from talking about all the pain and horror of this case.

He said that this day is not a day of celebrations but a day of reflection on the need for healing in the community.

If this was not the most perfect case for the death penalty, then why do we have it? “Linda, I’m Linda Beigel Schulman.” “There’s no doubt about the fact that the verdict should have been the death penalty.”

The mother of Helena Ramsay, a 17-year-old Marjory Stoneman senior who was killed, said the jury got the verdict “wrong” and asked what kind of country allows “weapons of war on the streets.”

A man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after being found guilty of killing eight people in Pike County, Ohio, CNN affiliate WLWT reported.

The sentence of George Wagner IV will ensure justice for the Rhodens and Gilleys. I spoke with family members this morning, commending them for their courage & their patience as they waited 6+ years for this day,” the statement said.

The victims were the Rhoden brothers, as well as Christopher Rhoden Jr. and Dana Rhoden. Also killed were two of the Rhodens’ other children, Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20; Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16; and Gary Rhoden, 38, a cousin.

The small town of Piketon, with about 2,000 residents, was rattled by the massacre. The Wagners are from South Webster, about a 30-mile drive southeast of Piketon.

At one of the four crime scenes, police found a 4-day-old baby next to his slain mother. That child, along with a 6-month-old and a 3-year-old, survived.

I don’t know what to say about my baby girl. Another life taken too soon, but will never be forgotten,” Andrea Shoemaker, the mother of Hannah Gilley, said in court.